Biography
During the opening decades of the twentieth century, Kandel's Orchestra ranked among the numerous Klezmer ensembles that formed in America while Eastern European Jews streamed into the country to flee persecution. The genre drew on violin, clarinet, trombones, tubas, and trumpets to produce a plaintive, Old World sound. Directed by Harry Kandel, the band that carried his name contracted with Victor in 1917 and established itself as one of the nation's foremost Jewish groups.